National Book Awards…Entries from the Big Boys Only Please

I was excited to receive news of the National Book Awards and looking forward to entering a few of our titles in different categories until I read the entry details and realised that this is yet again another 'awards' competition that is not open to small publishers and will invariably be dominated by the big six. How disappointing to find that they are only looking for books that have made an “outstanding or massive impact in terms of acclaim and sales”. Seriously, what is the point in this competition if it cannot be judged on quality of writing. You may as well hand them out to Jordan and any other 'celebrity' hogging the limelight who can shift a few thousand copies by not actually writing a word. I could argue that all of our books have exceeded sales expectations as this is obviously very open terminology but feel it is not really what the National Book Awards are looking for. Again, how do you define a best-seller in the digital age?
Just for once, why can they not make a competition a real competition and judge books solely on their content and ability to engage and entertain the reader.
After reading the entry pack, we can only enter 1 category instead of a possible 4.
Let's look forward to another stitch-up for the big boys in the industry in this years National Book Awards.